Our Vision
Eugene King, pastor at Wakpala, South Dakota
Vision Statement: Resourcing the Vision of Reservation Pastors.
Reservation churches, particularly in the Northern Plains and the Southwest, are located in very isolated parts of the country, have limited financial, material, and human resources, and operate among the poorest people in the Nation. These challenges leave pastors with God inspired visions to reach their communities but few means to fulfill them. Native American Ministries (NAM) partners with reservation pastors and their churches typically for a period of three to five years. We provide the resources they need in order to become strong, self-sustaining works. The hallmark of NAM’s success is when a church has attained the level of maturity that it is able to initiate and sustain ministry beyond its own community. In other words, NAM expects that every reservation church it partners with is able to do its part in fulfilling the Great Commission just like any non-reservation church.
Goals:
Native American Ministry’s three primary goals are to help churches become:
Self-supporting
A self-supporting church is one that is capable of generating the revenue necessary in order to support all of its financial needs. These needs include such things as facilities maintenance, administration, and all ministry programs such as evangelism, discipleship, and missions.
Self- propagating
Self-propagating churches are those that evangelize the lost and make disciples. They are able to initiate and maintain ministry beyond their own communities, via, U.S. and world missions involvement and the establishment of outstations and/or church planting initiatives.
Self-governing
A local church is self-governing when it is able to execute all activities pertaining to business matters, leadership selection and training, and disciplinary action.
Core values:
- That active belief in the person and work of Jesus Christ is the sole means by which people enter the Kingdom of God.
- That God is a healer of the spirit, mind, and body.
- That the Spirit filled life is crucial to the life and vitality of every Christian.
- That Native American language and culture, like all languages and cultures, was created by God to uniquely express His plan of salvation.
- That every aspect of Native American culture and language ought to be normal for worship and service to God as long as it does not contradict His written word.
- That the ultimate objective of ministry is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
- That every Christian, individually or corporately, is expected to obey the Great Commandment to go and make disciples of all nations.
- That every Native American church has a divine destiny to be a fully functioning, self-sustaining work.